The invention relates to a process and apparatus for obtaining combustible gases, liquid byproducts and superheated steam from coal in a compact fluidizing bed reactor.
It is known to burn coal in a fluidizing bed boiler system in order to generate steam. The combustion can be operated with up to 25 bar pressure in the furnace (German Pat. No. 973,248, Papers of Third International Protection Agency October/November 1972).
The shortcoming of these known fluidizing bed furnaces is that a uniform distribution of the fuel across the entire cross-section of the fluidizing bed is only possible by means of a uniform distribution of a multitude of fuel inlets above the inlet face of the fluidizing bed. Besides in this process there are lost the liquid byproducts such as tar and benzene.
There are furthermore fluidizing bed reactors known in which a flow of fluidized solid particles is caused to occur in horizontal direction by means of a slight downgrade extending from the inlet of the solid particles to the outlet in the reactors. (Gluckauf-Forschungshefte 26 (1965), No. 2, pages 67/68).
It is therefore an object of the present invention to obtain combustible gases, liquid byproducts and superheated steam from coal in a compact fluidizing bed reactor in a continuous process in order to obtain energy from the coal without loosing the valuable liquid byproducts. It is a further object to carry out the entire process in a single self-contained and technologically uniform apparatus.